Why Piper Jaffray's Charles Duncan Still Likes Catalyst Pharmaceuticals

Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. CPRX is a company who develops therapeutic solutions for rare diseases. The company recently closed a previously announced public offering on February 9, netting approximately $3.25 a share, or a total of $34.7 million through the sale of 11.5 million shares.

Patrick J. McEnany, Catalyst’s Chairman and CEO, stated: “We are pleased to have completed this financing, which provides us with funding to pay pre-commercialization and other expenses required to launch Firdapse™, including milestone payments due on the final approval of an NDA for Firdapse™, to fund future clinical studies of Firdapse™ for other indications, to the extent that such additional studies are required, and to fund future clinical and nonclinical studies of CPP-115.

"We are also pleased with the high quality of fundamental institutional investors who participated in the offering," the CEO added.

In addition, Catalyst Pharmaceutical gave an update on February 2nd about a discussion with the FDA regarding a pre-New Drug Application (NDA) for its drug, Firdapse, a treatment for LEMS. Following the meeting, the company believes that its Phase 3 testing of the drug will bring sufficient data for its NDA submission and plans to have its submission complete by the third quarter of 2015.

McEnany commented on the meeting, saying “Breakthrough therapy status for Firdapse™ has enabled a close FDA dialogue, and the pre-NDA meeting discussions have further reinforced our confidence in the NDA package we have developed to-date.

"We look forward to receipt of the meeting minutes to provide additional color moving forward, but we believe that this encouraging recent meeting brings us one step closer in bringing Firdapse™ to market for the benefit of patients suffering from LEMS and other myasthenic syndromes.”

Piper Jaffray analyst Charles Duncan weighed in on Catalyst Pharmaceutical on February 17, reiterating an overweight rating on the stock and boosting his price target from $5 to $7. Following Catalyst’s discussion with the FDA, Duncan is “now sufficiently confident in an approved label that may include congenital myasthenic syndrome (CMS), either specifically or due to a broader indication description, that [he has] now added CMS to [his] model.”

The analyst noted: “We look for increasing visibility in physician impressions and patient experience across multiple severe muscle weakness disorders from the expanded access program later in 2015, as it includes LEMs, CMS and nystagmus patients. Based, in part, on these changes and enhanced conviction in regulatory news flow in 2015, we are increasing our price target to $7 and reiterate our Overweight rating.”

Charles Duncan has rated Catalyst Pharmaceutical twice since September 2014, earning a 100 percent success rate recommending the stock and a +1.2 percent average return per recommendation.

Duncan has a decent amount of experience recommending biopharmaceutical stocks, such as Neurocrine NBIX and BioDelivery BDSI, helping him earn an overall success rate of 60 percent and a +11.5 percent average return per recommendation.

The analyst has rated Neurocrine twice since August 2014 with a 100 percent success rate recommending the company and an overwhelming +109 percent average return per recommendation. Likewise, Duncan has rated BioDeliveray two times since June 2014 with a 100 percent success rate recommending the stock and a +67.1 percent average return per recommendation.

However, Duncan is not always so accurate with his recommendations. In September 2014 he rated Cell Therapeutics CTIC once with 0 percent success and a -13.7 percent loss.

Charles Duncan is hopeful on Catalyst Pharmaceutical’s ability to gain FDA approval for Firdapse.